Dr. Wood received his A.B. degree in Biochemistry
from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1974,
and his Ph.D. degree in Endocrinology from the
University of California, San Francisco in 1980. After
completion of his Ph.D. degree, he did a postdoctoral
fellowship with Dr. Abraham Rudolph in the
Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF. In 1983, he
started as an Assistant Professor of Physiology at the
University of Florida. He rose through the ranks and, in
1993 was promoted to the rank of Professor. In 2002,
he was named Chair of the Department of Physiology
and Functional Genomics at the University of Florida.
Research in this department focuses mainly on
cardiovascular, neural, and renal mechanisms of hypertension, and is currently
among the top quintile of departments of Physiology with regard to total NIH
funding. Dr. Wood’s research focuses on fetal endocrine and cardiovascular
development and function in the late-gestation fetus, and has accounted for
improvements in our understanding of endocrine mechanisms of parturition and of
blood pressure and blood gas control of blood pressure and endocrine function. Dr.
Wood has been an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association, and
he has served as Chair of the Pregnancy and Neonatology study section at NIH.